The open pit mine at Molycorp Minerals' rare earths mining and processing facility in Mountain Pass, Calif. The mine is expected to produce 40,000 tons of rare earth minerals each year after a $500 million expansion project.
Courtesy of Molycorp Minerals
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, shown in a 2008 file photo, leaves office with a mixed record. He's won praise for his precedent-setting environmental activism and criticism for his failure to tame the state's fiscal mess as promised.
Rich Pedroncelli/AP
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada greets supporters after speaking at a rally held by members of the Hispanic community in Las Vegas on Oct. 16. Reid got about 90 percent of the Hispanic vote, according to a poll of likely voters taken right before the election.
Julie Jacobson/AP
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Texas-based Valero Energy -- which owns gas stations across the country, like this one in Sacramento,Calif. -- has contributed about half of the roughly $10 million behind California's Proposition 23 campaign.
Rich Pedroncelli/AP
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